"What no one seemed to notice. . . was the ever widening gap. . .between the government and the people. . . And it became always wider. . . the whole process of its coming into being, was above all diverting, it provided an excuse not to think for people who did not want to think anyway . . . (it) gave us some dreadful, fundamental things to think about . . .and kept us so busy with continuous changes and 'crises' and so fascinated . . . by the machinations of the 'national enemies,' without and within, that we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing, little by little, all around us. . .

Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, 'regretted,' that unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these 'little measures'. . . must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. . . .Each act. . . is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join you in resisting somehow.

You don't want to act, or even talk, alone. . . you don't want to 'go out of your way to make trouble.' . . .But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That's the difficulty. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves, when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed. . . .You have accepted things you would not have accepted five years ago, a year ago, things your father. . . could never have imagined." :

From Milton Mayer, They Thought They Were Free, The Germans, 1938-45 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1955)
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11845.htm

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Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered Since The U.S. Invaded Iraq "1,284,105"
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html
 
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Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America'sWar On Iraq 4,209
http://icasualties.org/oif/
 
The War And Occupation Of Iraq Costs
$579,602,161,240
 
See the cost in your community
http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182
 
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Bush Gets The Boot

Iraqi Journalist Insults President Bush

Video

Two shoes thrown at President Bush during press conference in Iraq.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21463.htm

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In Praise Of Muntather Al Zaidi

By Layla Anwar

Whilst Bush was pontificating from his ass, Muntather Al-Zaidi, a 28 years old journalist, a leftist, from the independent anti-occupation, anti-sectarian TV, Al-Baghdadia, stood up and threw not one shoe but TWO pair of shoes at Bush, calling him at the top of his voice YA KALB - YOU DOG.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21464.htm

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Gaza Families Eat Grass as Israel Bocks Food Aid

By Marie Colvin

The UN, which has responsibility for 1m refugees in Gaza, is in despair. - "Two weeks ago, for the first time in 60 years, we ran out of food," he said.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21455.htm

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Torture Speaks - Israel

Video By Al Jazeera

Since 1967, some 75,000, men and women have been in and out Israelis prison where they had been jailed for long periods of time. A large number of them say have been subjected to severe torture that left many of them physically and mentally handicapped.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21459.htm

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The Monster in the Mirror

By Arundhati Roy

The Mumbai attacks have been dubbed 'India's 9/11', and there are calls for a 9/11-style response, including an attack on Pakistan. Instead, the country must fight terrorism with justice, or face civil war.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21456.htm

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Iran Says Has Proof U.S., UK Back Police Killer Group

By Reuters

Iran has documents to prove the United States and Britain, the Islamic Republic's two Western arch foes, back a group that killed 16 abducted Iranian police officers, state radio reported on Saturday.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21458.htm

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CIA Helped Shoot Down 15 Planes in 'Drug War

By John Byrne

The CIA's clandestine role in Latin American politics continues.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21457.htm

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What Does Letting Our Own War Criminals Go Free Tell Us About Ourselves?

By Nat Hentoff

What has happened to the rule of law, and what has happened to Americans?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21461.htm

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 'License to Kill' ?
 
 4 Minute Video
 
 This song is a 'call to arms'. Or at least a call to link arms, and show that we see through the crumbling facade of military consumerism.... of dropping 100,000 dollar bombs on people who live on one dollar a day !
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21465.htm

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The End of Retirement?

By Shamus Cooke

Fighting the corporate strategy of bankruptcy and business closures is an immediate need of working people. This tactic will increase in number as the crisis deepens and companies strive to "restore profitability" by drastically lowering wages.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21460.htm

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Down to Zero

By David Glenn Cox

A government that shoots its people is declaring war upon them; a people that shoot back is a people pushed too far. A society that excludes its citizens from economic participation makes itself a foreign entity, unknown and unloved across the land.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21462.htm

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In case you missed it

Torture Inc. Americas Brutal Prisons

Savaged by dogs, Electrocuted With Cattle Prods, Burned By Toxic Chemicals, Does such barbaric abuse inside U.S. jails explain the horrors that were committed in Iraq?

By Deborah Davies

They are just some of the victims of wholesale torture taking place inside the U.S. prison system that we uncovered during a four-month investigation for Channel 4 . It's terrible to watch some of the videos and realise that you're not only seeing torture in action but, in the most extreme cases, you are witnessing young men dying. 
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8451.htm

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35 Taliban militants killed in 'clean-up': Afghan commander:

Thirty-five Taliban fighters have been killed in an operation to "clean up" areas controlled by the militants in a rebel-infested southern Afghan province, a military official said Sunday.
http://tinyurl.com/5o7oy2

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